The words of the city lord cast a heavy silence over the entire gathering, filling everyone with a sense of dread.


    Clearly, the situation had reached its worst point. The Gu King within the city could no longer resist Shi Haojun. The only remaining option was to defend the city to the death. If they couldn''t hold out until reinforcements arrived, everyone in the city would perish.


    Long Xuan couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Two meals over two days? No wonder people were fainting from hunger! His focus was clearly different from others.


    "Right!" Yan Pojun suddenly remembered something and quickly said, "The city''s defensive formation must remain active all day to resist the gue. Therefore, we need an enormous amount of Spirit Stones to sustain this long battle."


    "We’ll decideter in a meeting how much Spirit Stones each n needs to contribute, but for now, bring Qian Jinjing to me."


    The Qian n’s Chamber Of Commerce had just hosted arge auction that had taken the westernnds by storm, earning them immense profits. If there was any ce in the city with an abundance of Spirit Stones, it would undoubtedly be the Qian n''s guild.


    Just the sale of the Living Wood alone had fetched 40.1 billion Spirit Stones—more than enough to keep ckstone City sustained for a long time.


    And that vast sum of Spirit Stones should still be in the hands of the Qian n’s guild. Shi Haojun couldn’t have taken it.


    While the rest of the city''s wealth could be discussedter, these 40.1 billion Spirit Stones could be seized immediately and openly, and no one would have a reason to object.Thus, Yan Pojun immediately ordered someone to bring Qian Jinjing to him.


    However, someone in the crowd soon wore an awkward expression, slowly raised his hand, and said, "Lord City Master, it seems she sensed that a crisis wasing to ckstone City. So, as soon as the auction ended, she ran off with all the money."


    "She even took away all her goods, and many of the Qian n’s shops have already closed. She’s long gone from the city."


    "What? She ran away??" Yan Pojun''s voice suddenly grew louder, filled with confusion.


    "She''s really cunning!" Yan Pojun felt a sudden urge to vomit blood from frustration.


    However, he quickly calmed himself. Even without the Qian n’s guild, the Spirit Stones in the city should stillst for some time.


    After all, the Qian n’s had just hosted arge auction, attracting many Gu Kings from all over. Each of them had brought vast amounts of Spirit Stones to participate in the event, and many hadn’t had the chance to leave yet.


    For example, Cai Xuan—he had at least 40 billion Spirit Stones, as he had personally imed at the auction.


    Yan Pojun suddenly nced at Cai Xuan out of the corner of his eye.


    Cai Xuan felt a chill run down his spine and finally realized something, his expression turning bitter.


    At this moment, he truly wanted to p himself. Why had he foolishly stayed? He should have left earlier!


    He had wanted to be righteous and help eliminate the demonic threat, but now, he was trapped here, and his Spirit Stones were as good as gone.


    ckstone City had now be an isted and dead city—cut off from water and food. The surrounding cities had likely all perished, with no oneing to their aid. He could very well die here, trapped and starved.


    Looking at his injuries and mourning the loss of several of his top-grade Gu insects, Cai Xuan let out a bitterugh. What had been the point of all this?


    Why didn’t he leave earlier?


    He was full of regret. Truly, his intestines were twisting with remorse.


    Yan Pojun’s devilish voice rang out again: "We not only need to conserve water and food but also Spirit Stones. From today onwards, no one is allowed to cultivate by absorbing the spiritual energy of Spirit Stones. Anyone who disobeys will be executed."


    "The city''s defensive formation will also need to shut down unnecessary functions. During the day, only one barrier will remain open, and at night, two. We must conserve Spirit Stones as much as possible."


    "Now, everyone head to the city walls and disable the two outer barriers. Clear all the gue-ridden corpses at the base of the walls. Don''t let them drain more of our Spirit Stones."


    As the city lord''s orders were issued, the entire city sprang into action once again.


    After being thoroughly inspected by the Dan and Yao ns’ alchemists to ensure they weren’t carrying the gue, all the Gu Kings rushed to the city walls.


    As soon as the two outer barriers were deactivated, a massive swarm of zombies surged toward the base of the walls.


    However, they were met with a barrage of fireballs, lightning bolts, and wind des.


    The final barrier around the city walls was clearly a one-way shield. The people inside the city couldunch attacks through it, striking enemies outside, while attacks from outside werepletely blocked.


    This gave the defenders the upper hand: they could strike without being struck in return.


    Under such a defense, breaching this fortress would be extremely difficult. ckstone City, hailed as the strongest fortress in the westernnds, had never fallen since ancient times, and that was no idle boast.


    Most of the gue-ridden corpses had already been burned to ashes by Yan Pojun’s sea of fire, with only a few remaining.


    It didn’t take long for the corpses at the base of the walls to bepletely eradicated.


    Without the gue-ridden corpses to drain the city’s defensive energy, the people felt somewhat relieved as they descended from the walls and returned to the city.


    Meanwhile, Shi Haojun quietly observed, noticing that the city’s defenders had clearly prepared for a prolonged siege. He smirked.


    If they thought he had only this small number of gue-ridden corpses, they were gravely mistaken.


    He would love to see how long their Spirit Stones couldst under the assault of his true army of the undead.


    The Long n Estate.


    An ancestor of the Long n, who had reached the Gu King realm, had fallen in this great battle. At this moment, the entire Long family was shrouded in sorrow, with every family member wearing a mournful expression and feeling deeply downcast.


    White silk banners were hung everywhere across the Long family, as the entire n held a funeral ceremony for the fallen ancestor.


    The atmosphere of grief enveloped the entire estate, and in some ces, sounds of weeping could be heard.


    It wasn’t just the Long family—Gu Kings from all of the city’s ten great ns had also perished in this battle, and each ns had suffered significant losses.


    The entire city was steeped in sadness, and swathes of buildings were draped with white silk.


    On this day, countless important figures fell, and the whole city observed a moment of silence.


    Long Yuan held arge skeleton in his hands and sighed heavily.


    He had been severely injured in this battle, and even lost one of his peak-grade external Gu.


    In a situation where the air was filled with small insects, releasing an external Gu was a guaranteed death sentence. The mutated domain possessed the ability to restrict the opponent’s use of external Gu.


    But there was no choice at the time—he had to use his Fire Dragon Gu to escape death. In the end, he had to sacrifice the Fire Dragon Gu in exchange for a chance to survive.


    The Fire Dragon Gu was the first Gu insect he had refined in his Gu cultivation career, and he had developed a deep emotional attachment to it, long considering it an old friend.


    The loss of the Fire Dragon Gu caused him great heartache, and he constantly med himself.


    "Sigh! Old friend, may you rest in peace. My old bones don’t have much life left, I’ll be joining you soon."


    With reddened eyes, Long Yuan ced the charred remains of the Fire Dragon Gu’s skeleton into a small coffin and waved his hand, signaling for it to be taken away for burial.


    "Ancestor, please ept my condolences," Long Yuanshanforted from behind.


    "I’m fine. Each family suffered heavy losses in this battle, but ours was rtively light."


    "Sigh! I had already overestimated the power of the gue Demon Gu, but in the end, I still grossly underestimated it. My misjudgment of its power, along with the city lord’s, led to us suffering such devastating losses!" Long Yuan sighed.


    "This isn’t anyone’s fault. No one could have anticipated how strong the forbidden Gu’s power would be. This isn’t anyone’s responsibility. On the contrary, we should be credited. If we hadn’t detected Shi Haojun’s conspiracy early, ckstone City might have already fallen," Long Yuanshan said in constion.


    Long Yuan nodded, feeling a sense of relief from his words. He turned and said, "Tonight, take the n’s young talents to seek refuge with the Long family in the Far west."


    "All of the family’s treasures and records must be secretly transported there at night. No one must know."


    "The interests involved in the Space Hut are simply too vast. We’ve been keeping it hidden, and not many people in the family know about it, let alone outsiders."


    "If the matter of the Space Hut is exposed, the family will certainly descend into chaos. In the face of death, everyone will rush to flee into the Space Hut, and things will get out of control."


    "Most people cannot be transferred. If arge number of people from the Long n suddenly vanish, the other ns in the city will surely suspect something."


    "Those of us who are well-known and often appear in public cannot leave either. We can only leave when ckstone City is on the brink of copse, and we’ll take as many people as we can."


    "In any case, the secret of the Space Hut must be well-guarded. The fewer people who know about it, the better. The terrifying Shi Haojun can hear people’s inner thoughts. The more people who know this secret, the more likely it is to bring about the destruction of the far west Long n. If that happens, the young talents we left there will be doomed."


    Long Yuan looked solemnly at Long Yuanshan, his expression serious. Long Yuanshan nodded heavily. How could he not understand the gravity of the situation?


    "Rest assured, ancestor. The secret of the Space Hut will never be leaked. Everyone who knows about it is among the first to leave."


    "Even Long Qian cannot stay here for safety’s sake. With his talent in formations, it would be a great loss if he perished here. His survival is the greatest help to the family," Long Yuanshan said confidently.


    "Yes! I trust you to handle things. Now go and start transferring the n’s wealth. I have to go to the city lord’s mansion for a meeting, probably to discuss how much spirit stones each n has to contribute. Don’t bother moving the spirit stones—there are plenty outside. This is not the time to be stingy."


    After handing the matters over to Long Yuanshan, Long Yuan hurriedly made his way toward the city lord’s mansion.


    At the same time, other high-ranking figures of the various ns were also heading to the city lord’s mansion. These were the strongest and most influential ancestors of each family.


    Even the heads of the ns did not qualify to attend this meeting.


    However, only the highest leaders of the city''s ns were invited to the meeting, excluding the Gu Kings outside the city. Who knows what the ruthless me City Lord is nning this time?


    Some timeter, the ancestors with the highest authority from each n gathered in the city lord''s mansion.


    In the meeting room, aside from City Lord Yan Pojun, there were only ten people, each at thete stage of the Gu King realm.


    On the surface, Yan Pojun had to maintain neutrality, so anotherte-stage Gu King ancestor from the Yan family attended as well.


    At this moment, the atmosphere in the meeting room was heavy. No one spoke for a long time, as everyone was still enveloped in sorrow.